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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23964253">As Young Grow Old</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius'>Zarius</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Actors, Cancer, Death, F/M, Mentions of Cancer, Reincarnation, Soap Opera, Souls</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:20:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,448</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23964253</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Naomi Lincoln distracts herself with a creative writing competition for a soap opera she has become addicted to, but the worry over whether or not the scripts will be done justice by the cliched and wooden performances of the actors are the least of her mortal worries...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>As Young Grow Old</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A peaceful afternoon in the Lincoln household and mother of three Naomi was hard at work keeping the house in order.</p><p>As she was vacuuming, she found an assortment of letters stashed under the sofa.</p><p>"Hmm, I'm used to finding dimes and dog hair under here, but never mail" she said.</p><p>She picked up one of the letters and discovered something that unsettled her.</p><p>These were all calls for medical check-ups, her husbands' to be more precise.</p><p>"Holt's been keeping his doctors' appointments from me, and he never usually does that unless..." Naomi began, but cut herself off from this train of thought, for it only lead to calamity for her.</p><p>She needed to take her mind off of the letters. Holt was at work and the kids were at school, she had nobody to talk to, nothing in the way of human companionship could distract her.</p><p>Her sole refuge was the television.</p><p>Daytime highlights on the box, an invitation to a mind-numbing indulgence of continuous mediocrity from now until the early evening, but it was something desperately required when facing the unravelling of her husband's fragile grip on mortality.</p><p>She channel hopped for over twenty minutes before settling on a medical soap opera on Channel K-P SYTCH 0.1. "As Young Grow Old", a trashy novella created chiefly as a comeback vehicle for failing TV actor Reiner Copperfield.</p><p>"Listen Hilda, god doesn't make people better, I do" Reiner said to the rather alluringly seductive female actress playing Sister Hilda Bergstrom, Blanch Cartwright.</p><p>"You're such a blasphemer Fredric Rahall, you leave me no choice but to cast the first stone...cold kiss" she said, fainting into his arms and gently placing her luscious lips on his.</p><p>"Oh come on, who writes this junk...I could do so much better" said Naomi.</p><p>"Think you could do better?" the continuity announcer proclaimed as the cut to break occurred, "Then enter our creative writing competition, script us seven days of sassy surgery and you could win a holiday to Barbados!"</p><p>Naomi's eyes widened, her eyes homed in on a typewriter lying in a small box of trinkets right next to the lamp. She had taken the box down from the attic during a morning clear-out.</p><p>Naomi opted to again indulge her creative spark, and set to work on a manuscript.</p><p>Seven days, seven episodes.</p><p>She placed her hand on her heart, she felt no pressure.</p><p>Now was the time for surgery</p><p>After a few hours of feverish typing had gone by, Naomi found herself facing somewhat of a creative drought.</p><p>She had nothing to really say other than vent about the usual domestic squabbles she and her whole family got into on a routine basis. She didn't know how to channel that routine into something that made compelling viewing for a medical drama.</p><p>She considered writing about a boy suffering from a crushed larynx at the hands of an abusive father, but she wondered if that would force her to face an all too harsher reality.</p><p>The front door opened, the kids entered. Bart was trying to get a wad of chewing gum out of her daughter's hair. Not the first time that's happened to her either.</p><p>It wasn't a medical matter she could draw strength from. It was a repeat performance of a long played out manuscript of life, and there was enough at that being played out on television.</p><p>Holt followed them in, he looked less animated, long in the face, and breathing a little more laboured than was considered regular.</p><p>Naomi had felt slightly winded herself lately, she had attributed it to extensive housecleaning, but something in the back of her head suddenly tried connecting it to Holt.</p><p>"H.I"</p><p>"Why say hi in initials?" Naomi said.</p><p>"Hamburger. Intake" said Holt, requesting that he needed fed and quickly.</p><p>Naomi sighed and put together his meal.</p><p>The creative writing contest still weighing heavily on her mind all through dinner and right through to very late evening where she would put the kids to bed and snuggle up next to her husband in the comfort of their own.</p><p>Holt noticed the manuscript on top of the dresser; Naomi climbed into bed, put on her reading glasses and skimmed over a few pages.</p><p>"What in the bill on capitol hill are you reading?" Holt asked.</p><p>"What in SAM hill Holt" Naomi corrected him.</p><p>"You're reading a script, you've been bitten by the Hollywood bug, that's prime capital, my wording is justified" Holt spoke in his defence, somehow missing the phrasing difference between capital and capitol.</p><p>"Relax, I'm entering a competition for As Young Grow Old, if we win we can all take a big trip somewhere, I just can't figure out a convincing hook for my story though. When was the last time we had a big medical scare?"</p><p>"Oh I get it, you found the letters and this is the grand ol' intervention of New York".</p><p>"York, Holt, just York" Naomi corrected him.</p><p>Holt huffed, folded his arms, and looked away.</p><p>"Holt, I wasn't going to press the issue tonight, I figured you were there today and that's why you were able to pick the kids up from school"</p><p>"Well, the issue's firmly pressed, so you might as well print it" Holt snarked, staring at the window and realising he'd forgotten to close it. This being summer, not even a warm breath could silence the chill in his soul.</p><p>"Holt, tell me what's going on".</p><p>"Working in the plant lately has given me something the doctors say they can't get rid of. Cancer Marge, the Big C. No dancer, no prance, but CANCER. I have it, and they told me I might not be the only one with it"</p><p>"How do you figure?" Naomi asked</p><p>"I kind of let it slip you worked at the plant for a time, they want you to come in and get checked"</p><p>"What about the kids?" Naomi said, panic gripping her voice.</p><p>"How are they involved?" Holt asked.</p><p>"Bring your son and-or-daughter to work day"</p><p>"AAHH" Holt yelled.</p><p>"Holt?" said Naomi, feeling a shiver.</p><p>"What?" said Holt as he tried turning over.</p><p>Naomi looked into his eyes with a dour expression; she put his hand in his.</p><p>"Naomi, you're shaking" Holt noted.</p><p>"I'm scared"</p><p>Holt gathered her up in his arms and they embraced.</p><p>In the months that passed since the day of that embrace, Naomi had herself checked out routinely, when the results came back for her and Homer, she must have spent the next couple of days in a tear-stained delirious haze.</p><p>She was dying, she and Holt both.</p><p>All Holt did to cope was eat more. He had to cut all alcohol out of his system; there was something more poisonous in him now than vast quantities of beer.</p><p>With each session of chemotherapy, Naomi lost bundles of her luscious black locks, to the point there was a vast doughnut-shaped hole in the middle of it whenever it was straightened up.</p><p>She would look in the mirror each day, the way her daughter Linda did a year or so ago when she felt at her lowest, and she would look for a smile, to have one brought upon by a miraculous burst of hope.</p><p>A smile that would never come.</p><p>She made her way downstairs and contemplated house work, she considered not devoting the energy to it, but then remembered there was more in the house than just her and her husband.</p><p>She required the energy; she would demand it in spite of her illness.</p><p>The children had requested their dad take them to the hairdressers for a special request, Naomi seized the opportunity to shift her new found drive into first gear around the house.</p><p>Mid-way through cleaning it, she put the television on once more to catch the latest episode of As Young Grow Old.</p><p>And, again, the characters of Frederic and Hilda were subjects to the most banal drivel.</p><p>"I have a crisis on my conscience, but I simply cannot tell you what it is, you wouldn't understand" said Sister Hilda, openly weeping.</p><p>Reiner Copperfield, portraying Frederic, couldn't emote one iota.</p><p>"I understand my work, I can learn to understand yours" he said with a wooden and unfeeling delivery.</p><p>"I am having a crisis...of faith" said Hilda, who demonstrated little to no chemistry with the star.</p><p>"Put your faith in me my darling" said Frederic, and kissed her gently on the lips.</p><p>Naomi sighed, a little irritated.</p><p>"This is insane, there's no spark between them at all, all of the story's problems are on her, there's nothing they share anything in common with. If only there were some stakes to the relationship, something that Hilda could use to test how devoted she is to her own job and something that could humble this walking, unfeeling automation"</p><p>Inspiration briefly struck her, but it eventually was cast aside by the undiminished despair of her condition.</p><p>Could she risk putting together a story based on her and Holt's own experiences?</p><p>The door to the front door opened and Holt and the kids stepped in.</p><p>Naomi turned and gasped at the look of their new haircuts.</p><p>They were bald. Each and every one of them. Even the baby.</p><p>"Whatever did you do to yourselves kids?" Naomi replied.</p><p>"We wanted to show some solidarity Mom" said Linda.</p><p>"Yeah, we're suffering for your sake just as dad always suffers for ours" said the eldest of the children, Brad.</p><p>Naomi's eyes welled up and she gave her kids a warm hug.</p><p>The kids were fine.</p><p>They were happy.</p><p>They were healthy.</p><p>And they were trying to have fun in order to spite a crisis that would cripple any other regular family.</p><p>Naomi took to the typewriter and punched out a script. She would pour every bit of her family's ups and downs into this story, the fleeting bursts of optimism, the increasingly dour lows, and she would channel it into a seven day storyline that she hoped would make people aware of just what cancer means and how differently people cope with it.</p><p>She made her way back to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.</p><p>And there it was.</p><p>She'd found her smile again.</p><p>Holt didn't want a big song and dance made about his and Naomi's final days.</p><p>Their community had different ideas.</p><p>As news of the Lincolns' struggles reached far across the town, it had sparked mass debates over how significant the family had meant to them.</p><p>Some wanted to wash their hands of the family, having been taken to the wood chipper many a time through associating with them, others who had always given them the benefit of the doubt looked into giving them time, money, and their ear, letting all members of the family speak of their anxieties of the days and months ahead.</p><p>They gathered at the house tonight with purpose, they were here to say goodbye.</p><p>All the tests were done, all the doctors were gone, now was the time for friends and family.</p><p>Brad sat at the front door, letting people in; Linda guided them up the stairs to the bedroom where Holt and Naomi, now very weak, looking considerably thinner, lay.</p><p>They barely had the strength to sit upright and greet their neighbours with warm smiles, but they commanded respect from everyone for making the effort.</p><p>As soon as their neighbour Ted entered the room, Holt slumped back down, and tried to avert his gaze as he waved at him.</p><p>"Hey ho there neighberino" he said, waving.</p><p>"Hey ho, just go" Holt muttered, a long-standing dislike of his neighbour refusing to settle.</p><p>"Can't you show Ted some gratitude? He's taking in our kids when we pass over" Naomi muttered to him.</p><p>"I can understand where Holt's coming from Naomi, but he needn't be afraid, I'll keep a keen eye on your little angels, especially the one that could turn into a demon"</p><p>"You did so well looking out for Brad before that whole dome business, you have to forgive Homer for feeling a little envious about that, it's his job as a parent to step into those shoes, but he always has difficulty slipping into them"</p><p>"They're big shoes; I hope I can fill them" Ted said, hopeful for the task ahead.</p><p>"Holt, do you want to say something to Ted?" asked Naomi.</p><p>Holt spotted their cat lying beside the bed; he picked her up, stuck his tongue out and allowed the cat to bite it.</p><p>Then he tried to say something.</p><p>"Cat's got his tongue, but I think what he's trying to say he thanks you" Naomi said.</p><p>"Care for me to read you a few stories from the golden oldie testament?" asked Ted</p><p>Naomi took another gander at Holt.</p><p>"You don't want to know what he'd rather have the cat do to him than listen to that" she said.</p><p>Outside, Brad had finished letting everyone in and sat down to gaze at the stars, wondering if his parents would join them, and predicting that Holt would shoot back down to Earth.</p><p>He was joined by Laura, his neighbour's eldest and long time crush, despite being a couple of years his senior.</p><p>"How are you keeping up champ?" she said.</p><p>"Mom and dad are the real champs"</p><p>"And together they made a big brave bundle of joy like you"</p><p>Laura threw her arm around Brad and held him close to her.</p><p>"How long do you want to stay out here counting how many are up there?" she suggested.</p><p>"The rest of my life" Brad said, giving her a fetching smile as their eyes locked.</p><p>"I can go for that too...keep waiting 'till then won't you?"</p><p>"Got a short while to go yet" said Brad</p><p>"Whoever said life being short was altogether a bad thing?" Laura replied, and kissed him on the forehead.</p><p>In the living room, Linda was looking through the family scrapbook, showing her baby sister and her educationally challenged class friend Raymond all of her parents happier and healthier days.</p><p>"Your mommy's fat in a lot of those" said Raymond</p><p>"No silly, she's just pregnant. With me" said Linda.</p><p>"They hadn't let you out yet, you were still a prisoner"</p><p>"Inside of her, I was never more free, when I came out, it took me a while to process what it was like to be out in the world, I often felt like a prisoner as I grew up, everyone telling me what to do and how I should be"</p><p>"Then you were a man. James Dean" said Raymond.</p><p>Linda giggled.</p><p>"Only with a cause" she said.</p><p>"Linda...are your parents going to heaven"</p><p>"I'm a Buddhist, ask me that again"</p><p>"Will they come back?" Raymond asked</p><p>"Much better" Linda said, preferring not to answer the question.</p><p>"I hope they do" Raymond said, prompting Linda to give him a soft kiss on the lips.</p><p>The Reverend, Vince Joy, entered the living room, beckoning Linda and Raymond to the staircase. Brad was with her.</p><p>"They don't have much time, you'd best join them" he said.</p><p>Brad and Linda, who held her sister in her arms, entered the bedroom to find Holt and Naomi lying as still as they'd ever been in life, barely any strength or energy left within them anymore.</p><p>Wearily, Naomi beckoned Linda to come closer.</p><p>"Linda, did you read the mail?"</p><p>"I checked it this morning, your script was approved mom, and they're going to film the episodes in a couple of days" Linda said.</p><p>"I don't trust them to pull it off, the actors are so dry" Naomi replied.</p><p>"Get me some water, I'd rather drown than die dry" Holt said.</p><p>"There's no time Holt, we're about to go somewhere we'll never want or need anything again, kids come here"</p><p>The kids clambered on top of the bed, Linda handed the baby over to Naomi so she could cradle her youngest infant child one final time.</p><p>"If you want to think we're over in Neverland, if you want to think we're somebody else, if you want to think we earned our place in line at the gates, then think, above all of that, that we'll always be looking out for you, until such time you join us. Know that wherever we are, your song will be always be sung by us"</p><p>"How much longer?" Holt said.</p><p>Naomi smiled at him.</p><p>"That's up to the dawn" she said.</p><p>And as night turned to day, something ends, and something new began, for everyone.</p><p>Whilst the dawn rose for everyone in the land of the living, the darkness swallowed those passing over whole.</p><p>Nothing could be seen, could something be heard?</p><p>Naomi felt compelled to answer the question.</p><p>"Holt? Holt, where are you?" Naomi asked as she drifted through faint wisps of white that grew around her, the shadows beginning to clear as the bright colour formed; it was like being sewn onto a cloud. She could not feel her arms or legs, yet she had a sensational feeling of freedom.</p><p>Something other than the physical self had a hand in this sensation.</p><p>She called out for Holt again. This time he answered.</p><p>"Naomi" he said, beckoning her over to him.</p><p>"Holt, oh my precious, you're alright" Naomi replied.</p><p>"I'm alright, but light as a feather, like I'd just consumed all of red bull and found their adverts speak the truth, I need a beer"</p><p>"Drink from the blood of your saviours" boomed a loud and ominous voice speaking to them with the grace of a thunderclap.</p><p>"What if they're carrying covid?" asked Holt</p><p>"Not funny" Naomi snapped.</p><p>"Eh, I laughed. All you can do down there" came the booming voice.</p><p>"Don't say we're 'down there', things are meant to be looking up" said Naomi.</p><p>The two looked around them as the bright white faded, the clouds they stood on turned grey, a dim light shone down on them.</p><p>"Where are we? What are we experiencing?" asked Naomi.</p><p>"This is death"</p><p>"Who are you? Show yourself" said Naomi.</p><p>"My appearance is known to many of your human eyes, as young grow old. I am the heavenly body" the voice responded, finally taking shape before them, a stud of a being, made up of every different physical and sexual gender, an evangelical hermaphrodite.</p><p>"You have reached the end of one journey, but your next is just beginning, for this is where your souls will be reassigned to the next phase in the path you walk on. You are not yet ready to walk amongst the divine, your souls will enter new bodies, you will lead new lives, and you will be granted new opportunities"</p><p>"I knew all those get rich quick schemes at the town's expense wouldn't lead to any pay off, now we're gonna have to earn our reward all over again, we might not even see each other in our next life" said a dismayed Holt.</p><p>"I don't think that's what's causing the hold off sweetheart" said Naomi</p><p>"Then what is?"</p><p>"The Heavenly Body gave us a clue, he's known to us all, as young grow old. That's the name of the soap opera I'd been watching in the last few months of our lives...the one I submitted my winning entries in the competition. I wasn't quite sure the actors involved could give the scripts the nuance and reality I crave for them. And the heavenly body was somehow sense my desire to see those scripts done justice. What do you say Mr. Body? Am I in the right? Do I have the right? Will you grant me this opportunity?"</p><p>"On one condition, you take him with you" decreed the body.</p><p>"Me? What good could I be?" Holt said.</p><p>"You can be my big action hero co-star" said Naomi.</p><p>"Better that than your 'somebody's gonna roll me' all-star I guess" said Holt.</p><p>"It is decided" the body decreed.</p><p>Wisps of energy encircled Holt and Naomi, little was left of their forms but vibrant energy, the rims of which briefly fused together, as if they were allowed to kiss, before both phased through the dark and shot down like broken stars to a Hollywood studio littered with them.</p><p>Within seconds, they found themselves inhabiting the bodies of Reiner Copperfield and Blanch Cartwright...two hearts, two minds, one prevailing over the other, for a limited time.</p><p>Time enough to do a story justice, a story that had potential to be much grander than the lives lived by the Lincolns previously. This was a story that could travel, a story that could last forever.</p><p>This was going to be quite the experience.</p>
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